His first publication of genre interest was poem “Dreamer” in Weird Tales (1949) as C.S. Youd, with first SF story “Christmas Tree” appearing as Christopher Youd in 1949. His story “A Few Kindred Spirits” (1965), as John Christopher, was a Nebula finalist.

First novel The Winter Swan (1949), as Christopher Youd, was fantasy, and he produced a number of non-SF works in the following years under various names.

The Twenty-Second Century (1954) collected some of his SF stories, and his first true SF novel was The Year of the Comet (1955; in the US as Planet in Peril, 1959), all as John Christopher. Other adult SF work includes The Long Winter (1962; as The World in Winter), Sweeney’s Island (1964; as Cloud and Silver in the UK), The Possessors (1965), A Wrinkle in the Skin (1965; as The Ragged Edge in the US, 1966), The Little People (1966), Pendulum (1968), and Bad Dream (2003).

He turned to children’s SF and fantasy with The White Mountains (1967), beginning the Tripods series, which also includes The City of Gold and Lead (1967), The Pool of Fire (1968), and prequel When the Tripods Came (1988). He also wrote The Prince in Waiting series, the Fireball series, and numerous standalones for children.

Born April 16, 1922 in Huyton, Lancaster, Lancashire, Youd attended Peter Symonds’ School in Winchester, Hampshire before serving in the Royal Corps of Signals from 1941-46. He became a full-time writer in 1958.

For more, see his entry in the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.

A complete obituary will appear in the March issue of Locus Magazine.

Ardath Frances Hurst was born February 20, 1930 in Timpson TX, and attended high school in Nagodoches. She married Joe E. Mayhar in 1958. They lived in Oregon for a few years before returning to Texas in the 1970s. Mayhard worked as a dairyman, chicken farmer, and proofreader before becoming a full-time writer in 1982. She ran the East Texas Bookstore in the ’50s and ’60s, and with her husband operated bookshop View from Orbit beginning in 1984 until the late ’90s. She also taught writing.

Her husband predeceased her in 1999. She is survived by two sons and two stepsons.

See the March issue of Locus for a complete obituary.

Born May 19, 1948 in Glasgow, Scotland, Matheson spent nearly a decade as director of the Clarion Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers’ Workshop when it was held at Michigan State University in East Lansing MI. He retired as director August 1, 2005. Matheson was also Professor of English and Medieval Studies at Michigan State University, and the author of several works of non-fiction.

A public memorial service will be held on (Saturday) April 7, at 2 pm, in the MSU Alumni Chapel.

See the March issue of Locus for a complete obituary.

Lord is best known as a champion of the works of Robert E. Howard, and acted as agent for the Howard estate starting in 1965. Lord worked tirelessly to keep Howard’s work available, and brought many of his unpublished works into print. In his journal The Howard Collector (18 issues from 1961-73), Lord included rare and unpublished work by Howard, along with news, essays, and indices. He produced a special final edition of The Howard Collector in summer 2011. Lord wrote a landmark work on Howard, The Last Celt: A Bio-Bibliography of Robert Ervin Howard (1976); co-edited Robert E. Howard: Selected Letters: 1923-1930 (1990, with Rusty Burke & S.T. Joshi); and edited Robert E. Howard: Selected Letters: 1931-36 (1991). He received a World Fantasy special convention award in 1978, was guest of honor at the Centennial Robert E. Howard Days festival in Cross Plains TX (2006), and guest of honor at PulpCon 36 (2007).

Glenn Richard Lord was born November 17, 1931 in Pelican Louisiana. He discovered Howard’s work in the early ’50s when he read collection Skull-Face and Others (1946). Lord devoted himself to collecting Howard’s fiction, poetry, and letters, eventually amassing a huge collection of Howard’s material, including hundreds of then-unpublished stories, most of which he helped shepherd into print.

See the February 2012 issue of Locus for a complete obituary.

Hevelin was born February 16, 1922, and became active in fandom beginning in the 1930s, and remained involved for the rest of his life. He was a fanzine publisher (notably of H-1661), contributor, collector, and huckster. He was fan guest of honor at Worldcon in 1981, won the Big Heart Award in 1986, and in 2003 received the Sam Moskowitz Archive Award for excellence in science fiction collecting. He was also part of the group that founded PulpCon, and chaired the “Detroit in ’82″ Worldcon bid. More details can be found at File 770.

A complete obituary and appreciations will be published in the February 2012 issue of Locus.

Bassler was born July 7, 1932 in Clinton IA, and attended St. Ambrose College and the University of Iowa, earning his medical degree in 1959. He worked as a deputy medical examiner in Los Angeles from 1961-64, and went into private practice as a pathologist in 1964.

Hoban was a celebrated children’s author, best known for his series of books about Frances the Badger (beginning with Bedtime for Frances, 1960), and for his classic The Mouse and His Child (1967). He also did many adult works of SF interest, particularly post-holocaust novel Riddley Walker (1980), which was nominated for a Nebula and won a John W. Campbell Memorial Award and a Ditmar Award. Hoban’s first publication was his children’s book What Does It Do and How Does It Work (1959), which he also illustrated. He produced text and often art for more than 50 children’s books, in addition to around 20 books for adults. He also wrote poetry, plays, and an opera libretto.

Russell Conwell Hoban was born February 4, 1925 in Lansdale PA. He attended the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art from 1941-42, then served in the US Army from 1943-45, where he was posted in Italy and was awarded a Bronze Star. He worked as a magazine and ad agency artist and TV artist in the ’50s, and as an advertising copywriter in the ’60s, before becoming a full-time writer in 1967. In 1969 he relocated to London, where he lived for the rest of his life.

See the January issue of Locus for a complete obituary.

Adair was born December 29, 1944 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is best known for his non-fiction work on contemporary culture, including books like Myths and Memories: A Dazzling Dissection of British Life and Culture (1986), The Postmodernist Always Rings Twice: Reflections on Culture in the 90s (1992), and Surfing the Zeitgeist (1997). He also wrote fiction, including non-genre adult work, and young-adult books with fantasy elements: Alice Through the Needle’s Eye (1984) is a sequel to Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and Peter Pan and the Only Children (1987) is a sequel to J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. He also worked as a translator and editor, including anthology Wonder Tales: Six French Stories of Enchanment (1994, with Marina Warner).

For more, see Adair’s entry in the Science Fiction Encyclopedia.